Since the summer recess, the public discourse, stirred by Nigel Farage’s weekly press conferences, has altered radically
W
hat the hell just happened? When parliament rose for the summer recess, the debate about immigration was still – just about – the right side of toxic. There was a pretence at least that the people coming to this country, either legally or by small boat crossings, were human beings just like us. They lived and breathed. Had feelings.
Fast forward six weeks, in which government ministers have been putting their feet up doing not very much apart from intermittent attempts to stop the wars in Ukraine and Gaza – that went well – and the public discourse, stirred by Nigel Farage’s weekly press conferences, has altered radically.
Forget George Orwell’s “Two Minutes Hate”. That was strictly for amateurs. If you haven’t got in a full half hour of loathing for foreigners then you clearly don’t love your country very much. And this hate is no longer confined to the far right. Even some bien-pensants of the centre left are joining in. Everyone now has licence to hate. The fightback against foreigners starts here.
